Globalization and Cultural Diversity

Introduction

Since globalization has been very important, many business organizations began to focus on cultures and cultural diversity effect in the workplace. Cultural diversity requires intensive interest from management as managing across cultures is very serious and requires training and techniques to be successful. The work environment that includes people from different countries with different cultural backgrounds may contain conflicts and stress as a consequence of misunderstanding or not accepting views and behaviors of other different people. Here the role of the manager appears as a good manager has to be aware of strategies for improving the workplace communication and motivating employees to communicate within each other in a better way without consideration to cultural differences. The current paper is presenting a view of how managing across cultural can be very important and to the influence left on the business organization by cultural diversity, it also discusses how the management style can affect cultural diversity and the problems and challenges resulting from it in the business organization and it shows the need for training managers to be effective in managing across cultures. 

Discussion

According to Saxena, (2014) cultural diversity leaves great influence on the business organization and this influence can be good at many times and at others can be bad and passive. They confirmed that this influence should be used by managers in order to het welfare of the business and raise its productivity and achieving organizational goals, they referred to the strategies managers should apply in order to make good use of the cultural diversity in the workplace. These strategies can train employees to avoid issues related to cultures and not to discuss them with each other such as religion, customs, traditions, rituals and different personal behaviors of food, drink and others. This can save much work time and make employees more able to perform properly according to the organizational goals. Managers should encourage employees without regard to their cultures and encourage them to have self-confidence and be more courageous with customers and colleagues. Other authors referred to the influence of cultural diversity on the performance of employees such as Neves and Mele, (2013) who discussed how to avoid the passive influence of cultural diversity and motivate employees to communicate with each other and with their managers. They referred to raising the awareness of employees about other cultures and making them more open towards accepting others and the details related to their different cultures. They explained that when cultural differences cause stress and conflicts in the workplace, productivity and profitability are negatively affected as employees waste time doing problems and they don't cooperate with each other and they feel job dissatisfaction that affect their performance and then the organizational performance.      

Culture has said to leave great influence over business organizations as according to Mazure, (2010) there are differences in employees' performance and they may be related to their cultural backgrounds, this can be related to time management, adequacy, thinking and reaction, doing different tasks and systematic techniques. Here the manager has to regard those differences and try to make all employees work according to the general organizational behaviors and avoid following own cultural behaviors. Symen, (2006)discussed how rules and legislations of the country where the organization is established should be well understood by all employees from the different cultural backgrounds. This can be effective in making them aware of their limits inside and outside the organization. Languages should also be set as basic and secondary, for example English can be the basic language to be used in formal meetings or Arabic according to the type of people working together and their different cultural backgrounds.      

According to Kogler et al, (2011) any business organization that has employees from different cultures may suffer stress and conflicts that may result from the contradicting ideas related to behaviors, customs and values and these ideas can affect the way employees act and react in different tasks they are asked to perform. They explained that a management style that is well chosen to be flexible can help in making ideas of employees closer to each other and the effective manager is that one who is able to change the management style that can work effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds. The management style that focuses on communication techniques can be effective in reducing the stress and conflicts resulting from differences in ideas and reactions. Hunt, (2007) added that the management style should include different means for analyzing the behaviors f employees and then to follow guiding systems for guiding their behaviors towards the organizational behaviors and to cooperate together to achieve the organizational goals. 

Beaumont, (1999) referred to the intercultural communication and how it can be applied via the management style that consider different relevant issues to the employees' cultures as masculinity and feminism as in some cultures, it is difficult for employees to be lead by a woman and equality is not applied related to sex, those employees are in need to be aware of the importance of equality, they can be trained on cooperating with all people without regard to sex and race differences. State requirements and laws is also issues related to cultural differences and should be declared to employees from the beginning as the laws of the country they are working in should be the basis of setting rules. Another issue that is needed to be declared to employees is the changes that should be applied in order to make the work environment more cooperative, they should be applied through applying a management style that is flexible enough to accept changes and differences as well as the ability to share information easily among employees. 

Kawar, (2012) explained that a management style should depend on some models and framework for applying specific management systems and techniques that encourage employees to communicate and that motivate them to compete and present their best. These models can encourage employees participate in different activities and team work effectively which can improve their performance and then the organizational performance. Wilson, (2005) conformed that some problems such as power distance and collectivism versus individualism should be considered when choosing a management style as they differ when dealing with the cultural backgrounds of employees. The management style can solve the problem by making employees more cooperated and engaged within the different activities in the workplace.

According to Kumar and Patrick, (2012) training managers is very important to solve the problems and conflicts that may appear as a result of the cultural differences between employees, managers should be trained specifically in order to learn models and frameworks that can help them engage employees into the different activities and tasks within teams easily. Training managers can improve their performance and communication as well as improving their communication level with employees, this can help them in turn improve the communication level of employees and help them be aware of the benefits of working with people with different cultural backgrounds such as gaining global experience and new knowledge about different business systems around the world, currencies and other business information. Training managers can teach them concepts of equity and fairness without regard to the differences in race, sex or other considerations. Managers are in need to be trained on openness and on making open discussions and communications in order to accept different people and make them accept others even if they are different.

Training managers can be effective in making all employees work together in cooperation and can communicate better because they can understand the differences in cultures and avoid issues that may hurt others such as religion and politics. Managers can encourage them learn about different cultures and have awareness about them. There should be special programs for training managers and they can be sent abroad to different countries where they can learn new management styles to help them face the challenges they may suffer as a result of cultural diversity in the workplace. (Matic, 2008)

Conclusion

In conclusion, managing across cultures can be either positive or negative according to the way managers deal with it and to the management style used by managers. Cultural diversity in the workplace can be of great influence on the business success, productivity and profitability as it can lead employees to communicate better or it can leave passive effects as stress and can cause conflicts and problems. This is a big challenge faces managers who are in need to be aware of their responsibilities in this regard and try to find effective solutions for these problems. Management styles are numerous and managers have to study them hard to choose a management style that is suitable for usage in a multicultural business environment. The management style has to be flexible and encourage communication and cooperation. Training managers is a great necessity that makes managers better and more effective in discussing employees, realizing their differences and can communicate properly with employees from different cultures. Training managers can improve their performance, the employees' performance and the organizational performance.